White Sox 4, Yankees 1: Ryan LaMarre does it all

Tonight’s lineup looked like one of those low points for the rebuild.

Little did we know that Ryan LaMarre would turn in the performance of his career.

LaMarre, who came into tonight with seven extra-base hits to his name over 87 games, came up with three of them in the series finale against the Yankees. He delivered a two-run double in the second and an RBI double in the fourth against CC Sabathia, then came up with a solo shot against Chad Green in the sixth. He accounted for all four White Sox runs from the eighth spot in the lineup.

LaMarre’s outburst was enough to support Reynaldo Lopez, who maybe should only face the Yankees.

Prior to tonight, Lopez’s last strong start was seven innings of one-run ball against the Bombers at Guaranteed Rate Field. He did the same thing tonight, even with a less-than-fiery opening that brought Rick Renteria and Herm Schneider to the mound in the second inning.

Lopez’s velocity lingered in the low-90s to start the game, and it required a mound visit in the second inning. Renteria, who’d been lied to by Lopez before, looked like he really wanted an honest answer, and based on the way Lopez’s fastball rebounded to its usual levels in the middle innings, it seems like Lopez was telling the truth this time.

Renteria trusted Lopez enough to let him go through seven on 108 pitches, even with opportunities to jump off the train. He allowed the leadoff hitter to reach in four of his last five innings. However, Lopez did get 13 swinging strikes, and he had plenty of faith in his secondary offerings — 26 changeups, 34 breaking balls — so maybe that made the difference.

It also helped that the Sox again played tremendous defense. Avisail Garcia robbed Neil Walker of another homer in right, Kevan Smith and Lopez teamed up to cut down a run on a wild pitch for the third out, Adam Engel finished wowing the Yankees for a year with a diving catch in shallow center to prevent one scoring opportunity, and Yolmer Sanchez made a couple more snags on hot smashes. Giancarlo Stanton told Sanchez to leave town after his crushed one-hopper turned into a 6-3 putout.

Lopez’s final line had decent peripherals — seven innings, five hits, two walks, six strikeouts — but it doesn’t reflect a fair number of hard-hit balls. Based on the way he’d been pitching as of late, everybody should get happy to take success however it comes.

The Yankees had a better showing in the field as well, especially in center, where Aaron Hicks stole doubles from both Garcia and Yoan Moncada. Both teams had the same number of errors (zero), hits (six) and hits with scoring position (one). Fortunately for the Sox, LaMarre’s power display stretched how scoring position could be defined.

Record: 53-80 | Box score

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PauliePaulie

Hits from Rondon, Smith, Davidson, LaMarre.
Awesome.

Trooper Galactus

If Rondon can maintain an .850+ OPS, I’m guessing they’ll find a spot in the lineup for him.

PauliePaulie

Spoiler
He Can’t

Trooper Galactus

I wouldn’t put money on it, but it’s pretty amazing how similar his MLB numbers this year have mirrored his numbers from Charlotte.

sgp2204

His OPS is 70 points higher in the majors..? 

soxfanpa

I think if he can stick at 3B and his power isn’t flukey, than he could definitely be 2-2.5 WAR player. Of course, that’s near his ceiling.

It’s still shocking to me that he’s as young as he is. Next year will only be his age 25 season, and the sox have definitely run guys out there for longer, who have less potential, and are much older.

Trooper Galactus

Even if he’s a utility player at best, the significant amount of control remaining on him might be appealing given Yolmer’s gonna be due for around $4-5 million next season in arbitration.

roke1960

Rondon is an interesting player. He really gets no consideration as part of the future, but may be a valuable utility piece moving forward. But he better learn from Yolmer how to keep the dugout loose if he’s gonna replace him!

OJ the Bouvier

I want Matt Davidson to be DFA’ed already. His blown pop-up at 1B was embarrassing for a major leaguer, and nearly derailed Lopez’s night. We know what he is. Give all of his ABs to Palka, platoon be damned.

I agree. Bad defense is inexcusable. Clearly Palka should be getting the reps so that those embarrassing displays of defense don’t happen ever again.

Trooper Galactus

“I want to replace Davidson with an inferior player because of this one botched play I watched.”

sgp2204

Is Palka really an “inferior player” if their primary role is DH? 

asinwreck

“Ryan LaMarre” is trending on Twitter in New York City. Good evening.

GrinnellSteve

This delights me.

Willardmarshall

For what they inflicted on the Yankees this season, LaMarre and Engel will forever have a place on my 40-man…..

OJ the Bouvier

Snark is awesome, but ABs are wasted on Davidson. Delmonico and Palka are more interesting, and younger.

Trooper Galactus

And left-handed. Regardless, I don’t think any of the three is going to be anything more than a placeholder until the wave from Winston-Salem and Birmingham starts hitting the majors.

dongutteridge

The Sox should fire all 3 of them and this winter hire some real baseball players. 

 If the Sox want to win then get some stars in here. The rebuild will probably create a good, not great, pitching staff by 2020. But, the position player development is, has been and will be very weak. They have to buy bats!

This winter sign Donaldson, Brantley, Markakis and Keuchel. It won’t break the bank. 3 real stars along with Jiminez, Abreu, Moncada, Anderson and Wellington is a good lineup. They could even live with Engel/Cordell in center. 

Trooper Galactus

The rotation in 2020, barring injury or a serious step back, should be composed of Rodon, Kopech, Cease, Giolito, and Lopez, with Stephens, Adams, Dunning, and Flores as potential options as well. That sure as hell better be great, because good ain’t gonna cut it.

sgp2204

4 guys that can bring it in the mid-to-upper 90’s. Yes, please. Hopefully they all can develop legit changeups in the next 2 years. 

tommytwonines

So we’ve totally given up on Hansen?

I had the same thought. I certainly haven’t, although I’ve resigned myself to calling this season a total loss.

jose robcada

so u want to sign a guy in donaldson tht hasnt played hardly all year and his arm very well could be toasted as far as being able to play 3rd, brantly who is always injured, markakis who no braves fan even wanted on their team as they all wanted him traded last offseason til he out of nowhere had a resurgence this year and kuechel who would block dunning and prolly wont age well when hes throwing 88 instead of 91-92? umm yeah no thanks

roke1960

I agree. They need to sign quality over quantity. Management needs to prioritize the one (or two) positions where we are weakest thru the system and sign the best player at that position. There are plenty of reinforcements on the horizon. No need to block any of them with an average player.

roke1960

This winter they need to go big. Their payroll is next to nothing. They need to sign Harper, Machado, or at least Pollock. Who knows what you would be getting by signing Donaldson. He may just be a shell of the player he once was. I wouldn’t mind seeing Brantley, since it would also steal a player from Cleveland. And signing Keuchel to multiple years would just block one of their young pitchers. They really need to focus on elite players, who will be here thru all of the years of the championship window.

NDSox12

Pretty sure the Sox are the only team outside of the AL East that has won a series at both Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park this season.

Lurker Laura

For a fan of a team on track to lose 98 games, I went to bed absurdly happy last night.